Stuttering on
Purpose? You must be crazy! Geoff’s getting senile in his old age! Why would I
ever do something that I’ve been trying to avoid all of my life!

Many of us have
spent our lives trying very hard to be fluent, to NOT stutter! Has it worked for
you? If yes, well done and good luck to you. However, I suspect for the rest of
us, it has failed dismally! If this is true for you, please read on.

The
psychological model System Theory tells us that if we zero in on our ultimate
goal (ie fluency) we can in fact make things worse because we deny the
complexity (feelings, emotions, thinking processes, and context) in which
stuttering arises; e.g. you can’t pursue happiness directly but rather we do
things that may result in happiness long-term.

The old saying
that “only a fool continues to do what one has always done and expects a
different result” is true with our stuttering behaviour. If what you’ve been
doing isn’t moving you forward to your satisfaction why not take a risk and do
something different?

There are many
things you could try but the topic of this article is about voluntary stuttering
or deliberate dysfluency as we call it on the McGuire Programme. I personally
prefer to call it “fun stuttering” because it defines the attitude we must apply
to the strategy; i.e. have some fun with it.

Voluntary
stuttering is not new. In fact it’s been around since the early 1950’s with
Joseph Sheehan and Charles Van Riper. I put to you however, that the psychology
behind it is still valid today.

A good part of
the reason we stutter is “holding back” behaviour, being torn between the desire
to express ourselves freely and the fear that if we try to do that we’ll stutter
and be perceived by others as abnormal, incompetent, disabled, whatever.

We spend our
lives pretending, trying to present ourselves to the world as fluent speakers.
Whether we like it or not, by doing that we’re not being true to ourselves. We
aren’t fluent speakers. We’re people who stutter and assertive acceptance of
that fact will release us from the anxieties that get in our way of improving
our speech. Please note that I’m not saying we just accept that we stutter and
give up trying to do anything about it. I’m saying that at this point in our
lives we do stutter for complex reasons of which anxiety plays a part but we may
have an action plan to change that over time.

Denial and
avoidance are the things that fuel and perpetuate the stuttering behaviour. By
not being true to ourselves as a person who stutters, we create confusion within
ourselves and hence the holding back of emotions and our speech leading to
stuttering.

The fear that
we might stutter and make fools of ourselves is always there.

How then can we
release ourselves from the fear of stuttering, the denial, the avoidance? How
can we project to the world the true person? How can we unmask ourselves and
look the world squarely in the eye rather than dropping our gaze and avoiding
eye contact?

By doing the
thing we most fear.
By stuttering on purpose, the main difference being that we control the stutter
rather than allowing it to control us! To overcome any phobia, and I believe
that stuttering is essentially a social phobia, we need to face our fear and do
exactly what we’re afraid of. We need to “kiss the dragon” if you like.

Stuttering on
purpose achieves a number of benefits including being in control of our speech
and desensitizing ourselves to the reactions of people when we do stutter.

Are you game
enough to give it a go? If you are, I promise you it will be one of the bravest
things you’ve ever done. The benefits though are enormous and will show you that
controlling your fear and anxiety around speaking situations is achievable.

HOWEVER, it
must be done correctly with the following technique.

To voluntary
stutter by just r-r-r-r-repeating the first sound with almost certainly result
in a real uncontrolled block. The technique is to say the first sound of the
word assertively then release all your air, pause for around two seconds, then
take a big breath and say the entire word assertively.

By P … release
... pause … big breath … practising this form of V… release … pause … big breath
… voluntary stuttering with a great smile on your face you show your listener
that you’re very much in control.

Drop a couple
of those at the start of a feared conversation and the fear will drain away.
You’ve “disclosed” right up front that you have a speech problem so there’s no
need to try to hide it anymore. You can then be the true self! The emotional
release is enormous.

Just who are we
doing this for? Not our listener. We’re doing it for ourselves. Giving ourselves
permission to be who we are!

Another method
of voluntary stuttering is called the slide or long hit and hold. This method
involves ssssssssaying the first sound of a word and holding that sound for say
wwwwun second and then fffffffffinish the word. It must be done assertively
with “attitude”. It’s not a method I personally favour or use because I think
it’s not overt enough. The success of voluntary stuttering is all about
disclosing and demonstrating to your listener that YOU AREN’T a fluent speaker
so then you can stop trying to be one.

McGuiries
world-wide via our email discussion group arrange several times a year to have a
DD Day. People contract with each other to do 1,000 deliberate dysfluencies
within a nominated 24 hour period. People who achieve the goal feel bullet-proof
for weeks after!

So there it
is…a short description of voluntary stuttering. Are you game enough to give it a
go? And not just once or twice. Like any skill you need to practise it to be
able to use it effectively.